MUMBAI|DELHI: Otherwise wary of government contracts, software firms in the country are looking up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet IT projects, Digital India and Smart Cities, hoping that the government will execute the two ambitious programmes through public-private partnerships in the absence of any big allocations for them in the 2015-16 budget. Experts say IT companies are attracted to the two programmes despite delays in receiving payment of about Rs...

AHMEDABAD: Intellectual property rights (IPR) law firms have spotted a new business opportunity in the growing number of start-ups in the country that could be at risk from both competitors and impersonators. A Mumbai-based patent law firm Khurana & Khurana is set to hold what it believes will be the first initiative of its kind across major cities in the country. "We are initiating free and customised IPR clinics for start-ups that are short of cash and need proper IPR guidance" said...

NEW DELHI: Marking its first international presence, software industry association Nasscom on Thursday announced the opening of its UK chapter aimed at becoming the one-point contact for UK companies planning to outsource their IT services to India. This is the first formal presence of Nasscom internationally, a Nasscom release said here adding the UK chapter would be based at the office of public relations and affairs company, Hill and Knowlton. The chapter aims to serve as the voice of Nasscom in...

DELHI I BANGALORE: At 25, and with a computer science degree from one of the top regional engineering colleges , Sandesh Kumar considered himself to be the luckiest among all his batch mates when he was picked by Infosys Technologies last year. But within three months, Kumar realised the initial training at Infosys' sprawling Mysore campus was getting nowhere. "I actually sucked at everything — communications, language and understanding about some of the latest development...

CHENNAI: The Government's allocation of Rs 1,000 crore towards the Self-employment and Talent Utilisation scheme will give a major boost to the start-ups in the country and the total number of such entities will cross 10,000 by 2017, Nasscom Chairman R Chandrasekaran said here today. "This is the time to do right things because we see a great demand in India and globe for innovation and we see great talent that is coming up in the country. We have a good support...

MUMBAI|DELHI: Otherwise wary of government contracts, software firms in the country are looking up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet IT projects, Digital India and Smart Cities, hoping that the government will execute the two ambitious programmes through public-private partnerships in the absence of any big allocations for them in the 2015-16 budget. Experts say IT companies are attracted to the two programmes despite delays in receiving payment of about...

NEW DELHI: Raw treatment meted out to Indian information technology sector by Union Finance minister P Chidambaram in his Annual Budget 2007 seems to have taken a toll upon the main lobbying body for Indian software, Nasscom with its president Kiran Karnik bowing out of office. The decision, formally announced by Nasscom on Thursday, confirmed what was being talked about in hushed tones by the industry captains for the past few weeks. In a terse statement, Nasscom said it had...

Software industry body Nasscom on Friday reacted sharply to the reported statement of Health Minister A Ramadoss on the habits and health hazards of employees in the BPO sector, saying the government should not interfere in personal lives of the people. "Nasscom is deeply distressed by the comments, as reported in the media made by the Minister of Health. This is a generalized slur on half a million youngsters working in this industry," the association said...

BANGALORE: NASSCOM on Wednesday launched its Quality Forum aimed at promoting a culture of quality consciousness for the purpose of enhancing international competitiveness of the Indian IT industry. The Forum would seek to promote India quality story by undertaking research reports and preparing handbook on best practices, among others, and collaborate with institutions like SEI and IFPUG to organise some of their examinations in India, NASSCOM officials said. ...

BANGALORE: Nasscom, the industry association of software and service companies in India which has formed regional ITeS-BPO forums to address region and state specific issues has laid out the agenda for the Karnataka region. Besides providing a platform to discuss regulatory and industry issues related to the ITES-BPO sector in the state, specific agenda areas that the forum will seek to address include data protection and security, legal and statutory matters, encouraging sharing of best practices within...

NEW DELHI: The apex body of software and service companies in India, Nasscom on Monday said the Fringe Benefit Tax as implemented in the present form would hurt businesses. "The way FBT is being implemented in the present form is not good," National Association of Software and Service Companies president Kiran Karnik said, adding it would bring a lot of legitimate business expenditure incurred by the companies under the tax net. He noted that companies spent a lot on ensuring long term...

MUMBAI: The National Association for Software and Services Companies said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget is a mixed bag and that several chances were missed to improve the lot of startups and services companies in the country Though the Finance minister helped startups by creating the Rs 1000 crore investment fund and made it easy for them to the do business, he failed to address the taxes on angel investments and the dual taxation...

By Amrita Premrajan, TimesJobs .com Bureau Mid-size IT companies, in their pre-budget wish list, want a level-playing field to bid for government projects such as Digital India. "The eligibility criteria for bidding for government projects seem to be loaded in favour of bigger IT companies with large balance sheets," Srinivasan HR, vice-chairman and managing director, TAKE Solutions, a Chennai-based mid-size IT company, told...

MUMBAI: The pace of hiring in the information technology industry, one of India's largest job creators, is set to slow in the coming years. Industry body Nasscom estimates the sector to create 30,000, or 13%, less jobs in fiscal 2016 compared with this year, as new technologies make many roles redundant and companies improve efficiency as clients demand more bang for the buck. And, this is expected to be the beginning of a trend. "The...

HYDERABAD: IT industry body NASSCOM , Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge ( TASK ) and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH), today signed MoUs to impart training to students for improving their employability skills. NASSCOM, which has developed 'Qualification Packs' (skills required for industry), is trying to support Telangana government in the initiative, aimed at helping 15,000...

In a chat with ET Now, Ajay Bagga , Market Expert, shares his views on IT space. Excerpts: ET Now: Is your conviction in IT as strong post quarter three earnings? Ajay Bagga: Yes. If you have been following NASSCOM conference today, the leading players have come out quite strongly. NASSCOM is forecasting about 13% revenue growth. We will do better than that and plus it is a good play on a strong dollar, if that comes through or if that continues these guys are beneficiaries.

NEW DELHI: Software and services association Nasscom has asked its member companies to report higher disclosures when they announce their quarterly results this month. The move comes in the wake of Satyam Computer Services admitting to a large financial fraud to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore. Nasscom president Som Mittal said more disclosures could help the IT-ITeS sector restore confidence among investors, clients and employees. "While IT companies already report a great amount of financial...

Nasscom stands in a rather unique and enviable position today ? it is probably one of the very few institutions that India has whose brand value probably exceeds that of India as a country. In other words, if one looks at the global media coverage of India, it's a mixed bag with both brickbats and bouquets for scams like CWG and UID respectively. Whereas when it comes to Nasscom, ever since its visionary founding by Harish Mehta, Saurabh Shrivastava, K V Ramani and Ashank...

MUMBAI: IT-BPO industry body Nasscom today said the country saw 800 new technology start-ups setting shop so far this fiscal and is poised to house the second biggest eco-system for them after the US in the next two years on account of the ongoing high growth rates. "We expect that within the next couple of years, we will have the second biggest start-up ecosystem in the world," Nasscom, President, R Chandrashekhar , told reporters here. He said the...

Mumbai|Delhi: The National Association for Software and Services Companies expects Indian IT exports to grow 12-14% in FY16, after the industry marginally missed its growth forecast for the current financial year. The projected growth is slower than last year, raising concerns on whether some of the biggest Indian IT companies will be able to catch up with doubledigit revenue growth again, this year. On a constant currency basis, growth will be flat compared to...